September 20, 2011

I remember the first time this happened. The people who succumbed to the trend were very embarrassed later, to the point that they couldn't even understand how they could have made such an egregious fashion blunder. But I'm old, and these kids today don't remember. They will have to go through their own cycle of enthusiasm and shame. Have fun!

Whether it's a blunder or not is purely a function of the girl's shape, no?

The girls lined up around the block to enter the popular dance clubs in SF on weekend nights are just about all wearing skirts that barely pass the point of bifurcation. Basically it's hooker wear. If hot pants offend your old fashioned hard bitten feminist sensibilities you would probably faint at the sight of so much exsposed nubile female flesh.

"::shrug:: I was under the impression that "hot pants" never really went away, only the term, that there have always been women who would wear what are now called "short shorts.""

Short shorts was the term used in the 1950s. There was a hit song "Who Wears Short Shorts?" Bob Gaudio wrote it when he was 15.

The term "hot pants" was used for the upgrading of shorts into outfits that were supposed to be worn to work and out at night. I remember selling them when I worked a summer job in 1971 (I think) at a department store called Litz (or Lit's or Lits... I forget!). They were everywhere, and then gone.

What this model is wearing deserves to be called "hot pants" because of the dressed-up styling with a jacket and fussy high heels. That's the regression to the old trend that needs to be seen.

"Whether it's a blunder or not is purely a function of the girl's shape, no? The girls lined up around the block to enter the popular dance clubs in SF on weekend nights are just about all wearing skirts that barely pass the point of bifurcation. Basically it's hooker wear. If hot pants offend your old fashioned hard bitten feminist sensibilities you would probably faint at the sight of so much exsposed nubile female flesh."

Ironically, I didn't say a word about feminism. You're the one that's got it on the brain.

You see this much flesh all the time at the beach or pool. The question is, would you enjoy it if women walked down the street in their bathing suits.

There's a woman I've seen around Madison who walks around in a bikini. It's very strange. You think, that's practically like walking down the street naked... but then: Everyone reveals this much at the beach. Why does it feel so different?

So the fashion blunder is wearing FMN pants when you are not in a FMN situation. I guess FMN shoes have become OK in some workplaces because shoes are at least a bit more subtle. But once you wear hot pants to the office a tube top with the word "Tasty" in glitter can't be far behind.

Women wearing of hot pants outfits in offices and other public places in the late 1960s was a feminists assertion that females could display their bodies un-restrained by social mores created by men to restrain them.

"Personally, I like the mini skirt better (on attractive women). But that is me."

A miniskirt is more flattering because of the way it draws attention to the legs... without all the bunchy crotch business. But with a skirt, there's always the problem of your underpants (or whatever) showing. At a certain point in the hem-elevation, you've got to stop or switch to shorts (or never bend over or sit down).

I know what I'm talking about. I was the first girl in my junior high school class to wear miniskirts. I was sent to the vice principal's office many times for wearing short skirts (and I defended myself and kept doing it). And I rehemmed skirts over and over many times throughout the 1960s.

Dust Bunny Queen said...And while we are talking about regrettable fashion trends.

You guys made some pretty big fashion mistakes too.

Remember this look!! Check out the 3rd photo

Like I said: the 70's are coming back economically. Please God, don't bring back the styles or polyester.

vw: imiss no I don't

9/20/11 10:43 AM

Since its turning out to be a reply of the 70's why not go for broke? Platform shoes, satin pants with glitter belts , Nik Nik shirts and Elton John glasses for the disco hound. You know you just love the night life.

@Althouse There's a woman I've seen around Madison who walks around in a bikini. It's very strange. ---------Once when we were visiting Santa Barbara, and by the boardwalk, a woman in a bikini and two flowers stuck on her nipples whizzed past us on roller blades. I call that gutsy.

At a certain point in the hem-elevation, you've got to stop or switch to shorts (or never bend over or sit down).

Oh yeah.

I remember learning how to pick items up from the ground by gracefully (I hope it was graceful)going into a slight crouch by twisting the upper torso and bending the knees. Actually a pretty good exercise for the thighs and glutes :-)

Just bending over was to expose your entire behind to the whole world. You'd better be wearing pretty underpants in those days.

So that's what hot pants are--they are shorts rather than pants. I have no problem with girls trying to remind people that pointy hindquarters are a mildly effective defense against sodomy; if she didn't smoke, the fashion would look fine. The key is for a girl to show off her curve without looking as though she is trying to make her rear end seem sexual. The rest of the outfit is okay, but looking more closely, I dislike in the watch the contrast between the yellow and the red tint that exists in the face of the watch. I sort of agree about the bunchy crotch business about short shorts, though. I don't know what accounts for that, sometimes there is no such thing; they've got to fit right, I guess.

Short skirts are fine too: there's a kind of gracefulness to them. The flowing quality of them makes the wearer seem easy going and, I don't know, more in harmony with the ground they're walking on. Bell bottoms tried to emulate that in pants, I suppose, but the effect is quite artificial in my opinion. I remember in the mid-70s how kids where I lived ostracized those who wore bell-bottoms and "high waters". Looking back, I agree with the assessment about bell-bottoms. But I can see pretty clearly why wearing pants that showed some sock was ostracized. Such pants in growing kids suggested hand-me-downs, an atrocious snooty reason to dislike something. Pants that come up a little on the calf look much better (especially on girls) and are much more practical than pants that scrape the floor. Of course, by the mid-70s everyone thought ridiculously slutty the "peanut pants" of a few year earlier which girls were supposed to wear low on the hips; rightly, no girl wanted to look like the girls who wore those a few years earlier--after all, girls sometimes have to sit down. The other things I remember about fashion in the mid-70s was that it if one didn't wear sneakers with sporty stripes one was accused of wearing "fishheads", which I was told were a kind of boxy stripeless tennis shoe. I like plain-looking comfortable canvas athletic shoes, and I remember fondly my blue tennis shoes with the big rubber bumper in front, so I don't respect that fashion trend of the era. That somehow explains why (when wearing shorts) one couldn't wear socks unless they had athletic stripes on them. And then a couple years later I remember people telling me how ridiculous I was because the fashion had turned to plain white socks. Then a few years after that it turned out my socks were too long. And around 1977 or so my sisters sensed the trend, and, thankfully, made me know no young male could wear any sort of pants except Levis. In particular, don't get caught dead wearing Toughskins! Which trend I suppose in a way was sort of snooty, but it is actually kind of okay with me, since it saved me the bother of having to worry about what to buy.

"Ironically, I didn't say a word about feminism. You're the one that's got it on the brain."

Ah your feminist views have been consistently expressed. I just find it amusing that with all the Marxist-Feminist effort expended to try and reform human nature that I see more hordes of young women than ever dressing like hookers, chasing what could only be described by feminists as misogynistic "bad boys".

Freeman Hunt, Good luck..eat green vegetables if you want a boy[Italian superstition]. Maybe I'm being presumptuous and you could have just been putting away some serious carbs. We love you no matter how you tip the scales, or the Buick!